Canadiens: 2022 Draft Has Chance To Turn Page On History Of Mistakes

While all these players would serve regular shifts for the Habs and emerge as consistent offensive and defensive contributors, Montreal still struggled to become a legitimate cup contender besides a two-year period from 2013-14 to the middle half of the 2015-16 season, where the team hit a downward spiral that hasn’t really stopped since. You can argue all you want about Price’s accolades and occasional dominant seasons, ditto Subban, yet whilst Pacioretty eventually netted the Habs their future franchise center in Nick Suzuki, Price and Subban left with little to show except injuries, inconsistencies, and a player who simply didn’t want to be here in Shea Weber.

Consider that Anze Kopitar went after Price and won the Kings’ two Stanley Cups (and that Montreal already had Cristobal Huet and Jaroslav Halak in their system) and in spite of everything, Montreal’s drafting continued to bog them down in spite of the occasional solid and even great pick, though that’s a topic for another day.

At the moment, all that matters is that the Canadiens have young promising talent once again, punctuated only further by the potential of acquiring a player like Wright, who, whilst not game breaking, does predict to be a regular top-six contributor and possibly more. Couple that with the presence of Kaiden Guhle, Justin Barron, and Alexander Romanov as the future of the backend, and well, the Habs future now seems a bit brighter.

In spite of all the Canadiens draft blunders over the past decades, it seems as though the lowest of lows in 2021-22 has a chance to net them potentially the highest of highs for the foreseeable future. While it’s been without its hiccups, it looks as though Montreal’s continued draft “process”, might finally be working out.

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